Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) & Community Benefits

The Foundation for Healthy Communities has worked closely with nonprofit hospitals & health systems to advance their knowledge and ability to effectively complete community health needs assessments, report on community benefits and communicate this information to the public.

Health care charitable trusts in New Hampshire provide many benefits to the communities they serve in keeping with the charitable purposes for which they were established. Since 2000 New Hampshire law requires health care charitable trusts to develop a community needs assessment every 5 years and make publicly available a report on their community benefit activities each year (refer to RSA 7:32c-1).

National Health Reform (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, P.L. 111-148) was signed into law by President Obama in March 2010. It included new requirements for non-profit hospitals & health systems to conduct community health needs assessments every 3 years and to report to the Internal Revenue Service on their activities through Form 990-Schedule H (hospitals).